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It is a crisis in every way

Today in our nation’s capital, at 11:30 a.m., a man was shot on Alabama Avenue. Just down the road, a few minutes earlier, another man was shot. Yesterday, a third man was shot – he is dead. Also yesterday, a woman was shot and killed. A child was shot and wounded.

There is one reason that these shootings occur: poverty. Do you know why people are in poverty? They are born into it. Yes, guns are available – a big part of the problem. But they are available to everybody. People shoot other people because they do not think that there is a better choice for their lives than to do that. That is the same reason that many people drop out of school, have a child at age 13, or abuse the young girls around them. I rarely meet a girl in poverty who made it through her teens without being physically or sexually abused.

These things can happen to anyone, but the rate at which they happen to people in poverty makes any other thought process about this extraneous. This is all about poverty. Poverty is a crisis unequaled today in our country.

The answer? You.

You can make a substantial difference in your community – your extended community if you need to think of it that way – and the time to do so is now. Poverty is your problem; please think of it that way. These kids – and the adults – need for you to think of it that way.

Please let us know at A Wider Circle that you are willing to engage. We will find ways for you to help. It is no stretch to say that poverty has created a Wild West – in many cities – and it is no stretch to say that these are our brothers and sisters. They are all of our brothers and sisters.

It is also no stretch to say that if you get involved today, you may save a life. You can be sure your life will be changed for the better, and you may save one or more other lives in the process.

It cannot be okay for any of us to watch this happen. Whatever you can do, now is the time to do it.